Couple Has City's First Newborn of 2012

You know what they say: if you're right on time, you're late.

Riley Katherine Skelly arrived about two weeks early, but she was just in time to be Long Beach's first baby of 2012.

"She was two weeks early, but that's OK because I was really ready," said 35-year-old mother Jamee Skelly, a dental assistant and Long Beach resident.

Riley was born at 12:45 a.m. Sunday morning, and the 5-pound, 19-inch baby girl is the second child of Jamee and Eric Skelly, 41, who works at Alamitos Bay Marina.

"We're excited to have the city's first baby of the year," Jamee said. "It's weird, actually. It doesn't seem like it's the first of the year, but it's quite an honor."

Riley's delivery was described as "fast" and "easy," so much so that the baby girl was almost a New Year's Eve baby, said Eric.

"About 11:30 (p.m.) she was ready, so they had to call the doctor...so it could have been...New Year's Eve," he said. "Two pushes and she came right out. I taped it, and it was under a minute and a half."

New Year's celebrations are definitely going to change for a while, said the parents.

"Our New Year's will be a lot quieter, at least for the first few years," Eric said.

And, of course, birthdays will overshadow the other New Year's festivities, "especially the first birthday," said Jamee.

Video camera in hand, maternal grandmother Jeri Mee was overjoyed.

"I'm elated, it's exciting, it's fantastic," she said. "This is the first girl. There are three grandsons, so I'm feeling pretty special."

Also among the first births of 2012 in Los Angeles County was Jordan Godinez Jimenez, a 7-pound, 6-ounce boy who was delivered at 12:16 a.m. at Kaiser Permanente's hospital in Downey, a spokeswoman said.

A baby boy was born to a Mr. and Mrs. Gutierriez at the California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles. The baby has 12:03 a.m. on his birth certificate and he weighs 8 pounds, 1 ounce.

--with reports from City News Service